Illegal immigrants to be eligible for Social Security, Medicare

Published November 27, 2014

Friday, November 14, 2014

ELECTION ANALYSIS--It was pointed out to me that on election day the Democratic vote started out with a pretty healthy lead - and then the Republicans got off work.../s/ Kemosabe-Frogdog Enterprises, et al

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Our geocaching partner Lighthouse Nut finishes logging a cache in Ohio's oldest building; a small fort built in the 1680s just East of what is now known as Coshocton, OH.

We spent last Friday night and Saturday enjoying the Crow Geo-Trail, newly established by the Coshocton County Convention and Visitor's Bureau.

About 20 geocaches were sprinkled around the county, most located at historical or commercial establishments popular for local tourism.

Two, for example, were located within Roscoe Village, arguably the area's prime tourist attraction.

Bill and Diane (Lighthouse Nuts) joined Greg and Leslie (GOC+me) and the Skagways, (Sue and me) for this thoroughly enjoyable assault.

Most cachers treasure being the first to find (FTF) of newly established caches. At this event which included more than 50 serious cachers, our humble team scored 5 FTFs; nominally 1/4 of the total on the new trail.

Can you see my smile?

The team reconvened Monday in Mansfield for some munching and some card playing and some more geocaching, of course.

We shared the caches Sue and I have established then aimed them at the very challenging hide on Lexington Ave., which boasts a difficulty of 5, the highest in our sport. Our guests made fairly short work of that one then we were off to the Stoller Trail along the north side of the Clear Fork Reservoir for a mile hike to an elusive cache named "Over the River and Through the Woods".

This rascal was near the site of an old cabin, long gone, with only the masonary and stone chimney (below) still standing sentinel in the woods.

We wound up the day's caching activity at a very enchanting hide named "Gnome Sweet Gnome". It's nestled in a wooded clearing near a pond and populated by a collection of Gnomes challenging visitors to find the hide among them.

This dandy is the creation of Nancy Meinzer (Frogdog10) who, along with her hubby (Kemosabe48), are responsible for introducing Sue and me to this marvelous activity.

Saturday, November 8, 2014

7 REALMS OF DARKNESS!My favorite geocache

With over 2,600 found caches to-date this one leaped into first place on my personal favorites list Just a few weeks ago. That's my partner Skagway071 (Sue Brooks) front left above with GOC+me (Leslie Cornett being the '+me' of that duo) front center and Mrs. Lighthouse Nut (Diane Niehoff) front right. Back, from left are GOC (Greg Cornett) and yours truly, Skagway330.

Real names are in parentheses and the funny sounding thingys like "Skagway" are the names we are known by in geocaching circles. Bill Niehoff, the other half of the Lighhouse Nuts, took the picture.

You notice, of course, the absolute blackness surrounding us. That's because this was taken well after dark, deep in the woods, illuminated only by our personal flashlights at the site of this geocache. The cache container was an ammo can lurking behind the large, fallen tree trunk we are sitting upon and standing behind.

Here's how I described our experience in my log on this cache site:

"WOW! My first night caching experience and it was a dandy. It is hard
to imagine the work it took to create and install this masterpiece.
Thanks also to GOC+me and Mr. Lighthouse Nut for lending their
experience to our expedition of six. Without them I would not have even
considered attempting this hide. Did I say WOW! Two hours and 33
minutes of stumbling through the woods as darkness smothered us, of
great relief when that next little reflector revealed itself, of great
disappointment when wandering into a very diabolical dead end.

Up
hills and down hills and over logs and tip-toeing, amazingly, with dry
feet across small streams or wondering if this was doable, the
subconscious wondering if we could beat the park closure deadline and
the conscious wondering what would happen if we didn't, and finally,
WOW, that marvelous, funny, and oh so deeply appreciated smiley on the
log. Hallelujah!

As the tingles of victory wore off, now what?
Ahhhh, there's the first orange reflector, an essential find to lead us
out. And then the second, and third, then--nothing. Flashlights
blazed through the woods like spotlights on a Hollywood opening night.
We knew there was a problem with disappearing orange reflectors. I
stood there silently regarding that as a felony of the first degree.
Thankfully, a combination of GOC+me and Lighthouse Nuts' experience, and
tracking technology, saved the day. WOW!

I hoped my partner
Skagway071 really did sign the log as I sagged against a tree fearing my
body might choose at that minute to discover how old it was. Bouquets
Kelinore! Bushels of them."

In that final sentence I threw a bouquet to Kelinore, the cache creator.

For our 2 hours and 33 minutes of hiking in the dark over 2 and a half miles of sometimes trail and sometimes not we must sign the container's log and our reward is simply a tiny smiley face in our on-line record of caches found plus, of course, a huge sense of accomplishment.

The "smiley on the log" which evoked my "Hallelujah" above was, in fact, a human-sized smiley shaped face on the downed log created with the same reflectors which guided us to it's location. When Greg's powerful flashlight beam struck the "Smiley" in the coal-dark woods, we newbies collectively gasped that prayer of relief.

Greg, Leslie and Bill had experienced this exulted punishment before. Sue, Diane and I were undergoing that night's initiation.